Comments on Rocketpunk Manifesto: History: Past, Future, and Fake II

Invasion of the Feudal Plotbunnies - that s...

2007-05-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Invasion of the Feudal Plotbunnies - that sounds truly terrifying! (There really was a movie about giant radioactive bunnies: "Night of the Lepus."

How will you justify the swords, or will you just brazen it through without explaining?

Hehe, and my space opera idea that's not really go...

2007-05-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

Hehe, and my space opera idea that's not really going anywhere, is 12th century feudalism in space. I'm not going to wake that monster now, having enough plotbunnies already, but I have not yet completely abandoned the idea of writing a space opera. I'll have some swords, that much is sure.

Turtledove and Kay have finally gotten to Byzantiu...

2007-05-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Turtledove and Kay have finally gotten to Byzantium, but it's not yet part of the standard kit of tropes.

Kay is doing the same general kind of schtick that I do, fake history that cheerily admits to being based directly on the real Middle Ages.

Gabriele - bow and doff of cap!

Nyrath - someone who has gone down the memory hole even more than Spengler is Arnold Toynbee. He'll be my next topic, because when I found his work it was like stumbling on the collected works of Hari Seldon.

As with macro history, so for levels down, and World War II pretty much lurks in the background of most military SF. The Napoleonic Wars have been surprisingly productive for space-navy SF, considering that they were fought at the dawn of the industrial age with basically pre-industrial ships.

In Bill Baldwin's THE HELMSMAN series, everything ...

2007-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

In Bill Baldwin's THE HELMSMAN series, everything is loosed based on World War I and II. He even included the Dunkirk Miracle.

Yes, Rome is but a backwater in the G.G. Kay duolo...

2007-05-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, Rome is but a backwater in the G.G. Kay duology.

David Drake and Eric Flint have co-authored the
2007-05-02T10:23:00.000-07:00
David Drake and Eric Flint have co-authored the Belisarius saga, six books Byzantium in space, according to what I've read about them - haven't bought any yet.

Another Fantasy take is Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors.

-- What a contemptable people those Byzantines were, arguing abstruse theology in taverns when they weren't smashing statues or blinding each other, or even negotiating with Muslims; achieving nothing for a thousand years but staving off Visigoths, Avars, Slavs, Persians, Arabs, more Arabs, Bulgars, Vikings, more Vikings, Turks, Normans, more Turks, and still more Turks. They failed to stave off the Fourth Crusade, and finally there came more Turks than they could handle.--

This is the best short version of Byzantine history I've ever read. Roflol.

I too have a sketch of Donald Wollheim outline of ...

2007-05-02T09:07:00.001-07:00

I too have a sketch of Donald Wollheim outline of future history here, thoughtfully illustrated with old SF illustrations. I think I got it from some literary history of science fiction.

Besides Asimov using Gibbon, the other biggie is James Blish using the (discredited) theories of Spengler for his future history. That bit was immediately swiped by the authors of a computer game called Omnitrend's Universe. I think it also was copied by a role playing game, but I'm not sure.

Among sf/fantasy writers, Harry Turtledove has don...

2007-05-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Among sf/fantasy writers, Harry Turtledove has done quite a bit with Byzantium, both as fantasy and as alternate history. Can't think of any specifically science fictional uses of Byzantium, though.